Well, another Wonder Con has come and gone. Once again I was extremely pleased with how the event turned out. For those of you who have only ever been to the San Diego Comic Con during the last few years, take my word as an old timer. Wonder Con was what the SD Con was back in about 1995 or so. It's smaller, it's much more intimate, and it's more about comics than movies.
Sure there is plenty of movie stuff there too, but as opposed to the big show in SD, the movie panels here are always comic related. You won't see TV shows like Prison Break getting panels at Wonder Con, no sir. This con is a bit old school. And that is why I love it.
I spent almost all of my time at this year's Wonder Con on the floor. Let me just say that right now. I only attended two panels during my time at the show, otherwise I was on the floor somewhere looking at stuff and spending too much money buying stuff. Part of the reason for this was that, to be honest, the programming for this year was a bit weak in my opinion. Mind you, this is not the convention organizer's fault at all. They can only make do with what the comic companies offer to bring.
DC was out in full force pushing their upcoming Green Lantern film. Ryan Reynolds' face was everywhere at the con this year. They had toys on display, video games, giant posters and (of course) panels supporting the film and trying to drum up interest.
Where was Marvel though? I really didn't see much for them at all, and I was highly disappointed by this. What with Marvel having two big summer movies coming out this year, I would have expected something big from them. Instead, I got nothing. Thor, Marvels first big film that was due to come out only a month or so after the convention, had almost no presence there at all (with one major exception that I'll get to in a second). I was shocked. I would have expected a panel, and toys and comics and god knows what else to be pushing the film. On the floor of the con itself though, there was almost nothing.
And Captain America? All I really saw for him was a big poster hanging for the ceiling. For shame Marvel. I expected more from you.
I will give Marvel credit though. They did have one really cool thing set up to promote Thor, but it was outside of the convention hall, across the street from the Convention. Marvel seems to have partnered up with the Acura car company and were doing an event where people could sign up to be S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. They took your picture and even gave you your own S.H.I.E.L.D. ID card.
Now, I'm a sucker for a cool, nerdy fake ID, but as I'm sure some of you remember, my attempts to join the Cobra organization at last year's SD Comic Con
didn't go so well. It was with a deep fear of repeating that incident that I got in line to become a member of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Luckily, the line wasn't too long when I got in it, and they were playing the Thor trailer on a loop, in case you forgot that they were actually trying to promote a film by doing this. Oh, and there was this too:
Other than that that though, there really wasn't anywhere near the amount of Thor themed stuff at this year's Wonder Con as I was expecting there to be. Seriously, the
Game of Thrones had a bigger presence on the con floor than Thor did. Anyways, I was able to get my Shield ID this time without anywhere near the amount of hassle that it took me to get my Cobra ID. The big question now though is, how do I reconcile being both a member of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Cobra? Am I a double agent? Am I a spy for S.H.I.E.L.D.? Am I a Spy for Cobra? Only I will ever know for certain.
Muahahahahahahaha!!!!!
After that, it was back to the floor where I wandered around and took some pics of the great cosplayers that were there. Here are a few of the ones I liked the most.
As for the panels that I did attend, the first was the Star Wars: The Clone Wars panel. Much like that panel has gone in years past, the executive producer of the show Dave Filoni came out with some of the cast of voice actors and discussed what the show has in store in the upcoming season. The next few episodes of the show are going to be Chewbacca-centric, so they brought out Peter Mayhew to talk about the character. As cool as that was though, I was way more distracted by this guy, who was standing next to me durnig the panel.
It's not every day you see Jabba The Hut taking a picture while trying to hold a baby Hutt, so I'm sure you can see why this was so amusing to me.
All in all, it was another great year at the convention. I still enjoy the SD con for its sheer size and scope, but deep down I really prefer Wonder Con these days as a fan. It's a much more personal, intimate affair. It's like the cons I remember going to as a kid. I hope it never gets any bigger.
Keep staying classy Wonder Con. I am already looking forward to attending you again next year.
